With the advent of sophisticated medical imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance, computed tomography, ultrasound, and cone-beam X-ray imaging, three-dimensional (3D) volumetric data sets can be reconstructed from a series of two-dimensional (2D) X-ray slices of an anatomical structure taken around an axis of rotation. Such 3D volumetric data may be displayed using volume rendering techniques so as to allow a physician to view any point inside the anatomical structure, without the need to insert an instrument inside the patient's body.
To detect, diagnose, and treat blood vessel pathologies, physicians and other healthcare professionals rely on the visual examination of 3D images and multiple 2D projection or cross sectional images. Recent advances in the medical image processing field have made available some software tools for semi-automated quantification of vascular diseases. Software tools for semi-automated quantification of the severity of blood vessel stenosis, and the size of aneurysms are available for use today on some clinical image processing workstations. These tools typically analyze blood vessels through an idealized model of a blood vessel, such as a tubular model with possible branching. One of general steps for analyzing the shape of blood vessels is the extraction of the centerline of these vessels. For diseases like aneurysms or stenosis, the profile of the blood vessel diameter along the centerline abnormally expands or shrinks, respectively.